Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
How to avoid running injuries
Dr Peter Francis from Leeds Beckett University’s School of Health was the star speaker in our university's recent event on how to avoid running injuries. With the London Marathon coming up, we caught up with Pete to find out his top tips for keen (and less keen!) runners out there.
Pete advises:
- Design a variable program where no two days are the same.
- Think about the volume of running you can do comfortably and try to do it for ten weeks.
- Keep a spreadsheet of your training so you can easily see what you have been doing.
- Engage in some form of strength and conditioning.
- Incorporate 10-15 minutes of easy barefoot running on grass a couple of times a week.
- At least once a week run as fast as you can, if possible up a hill.
- Make the headspace to run!
Dr Francis speaks from professional as well as personal experience as a distance runner. He is the Director of the Sport and Exercise ‘Musculoskeletal Health Research Group’ at Leeds Beckett.
He has held a consultancy role within the Athletics Association of Ireland since 2011 and has recently returned from Portugal where he was working at a training camp with the Irish international distance running team providing sports science and medicine support.